


Me and Not You

by LazyWriterGirl



Series: In Any Scenario - Korrasami Month 2016 [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Korrasami Month 2016, Messing With Canon Is Fun, Post-Book 3, Prompt: Role Reversal, sappy nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 19:05:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8459443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LazyWriterGirl/pseuds/LazyWriterGirl
Summary: Korrasami Month Days 1-3: 10 Years Later (Role Reversal)Avatar Asami is recovering in the South Pole, and though it is difficult she's positive that there's something about all of this to be grateful for.





	

**Author's Note:**

> And here's me, back at it again as I tentatively dip my pinky finger into the waters of yet another fandom. I've been with Korra and Asami Sato since the very beginning, but this is the first time I'll be writing for them, and what better introduction than Korrasami Month (last year I drew...very badly...). Anyway, on with the show, shall we?

There’s very little about Asami Sato that doesn’t seem intimidating, at least on paper, and Korra would know. Sure, her own father is Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe, making her something of a princess, but her reach is nowhere near as impressive as Asami’s. After all, Asami somehow manages to be the CEO of a high-profile company that seems to specialize in everything from transportation vehicles to Republic City infrastructure while also being the Avatar; more specifically, the Avatar who took down the head of the Red Lotus and helped to usher in the first airbending master since Avatar Aang all in the last few months.

Yep, Asami is pretty impressive.

Korra knows that President Raiko finds her girlfriend threatening on more than one level, and honestly she can’t blame him. Even with the Avatar in her current state of recovery, she’s still more beloved by the people of Republic City than their chosen president. Citizens write letters that Korra is careful not to let Asami see, mostly because almost all of them are full of clamouring for Asami’s return for more reason than one. Raiko himself has admitted to never receiving half that attention, though he’d also said at the same time that he wouldn’t want it.

 

As it is Korra understands, really, she gets it, but that doesn’t mean that she has to be happy about the president of Republic City constantly trying to get in touch with them here in the South while Asami is supposed to be recovering.

 

“Korra?”

Asami’s voice still sounds so small, so pained, and it hurts Korra in a way she had never thought possible. She’s not the one sitting there in a fancy Future Industries wheelchair, looking so broken that she barely looks like herself.

“What’s up, babe?” Korra knows how much it bothers Asami to not be out doing something, working on some new world-changing invention or communing with spirits or any number of other things she does when she’s upwardly mobile. She tries to keep her tone light around Asami, tries to hide how often she and Naga go out for a romp in the snow. She even encourages her father to train away from their home, out on the tundra plains with his men instead of in the palace courtyard, because if Asami has to watch so much activity while she’s confined to her chair she might feel badly, and Korra doesn’t want that. She just wants Asami to get better, but even Master Katara doesn’t seem to be any closer to getting her there, and the whole thing is just… _frustrating_.

“Your mother was looking for you,” Asami says, fiddling with something in her lap. It bothers Korra more than she can rightly say, because Asami _doesn’t_ fiddle. That just isn’t a thing she does, because Asami is made of poise and poised people don’t fiddle or fidget or—“Korra, did you hear me? Your mother said it’s time for dinner.”

When Korra looks at her girlfriend again, she’s surprised—but pleased—to see a small smile on Asami’s lips. Korra wants to lean over and kiss her, but it wouldn’t be the right time, so instead she just smiles back. “Dinner sounds great! Race you!” she says, almost without thinking.

She’s scared she’s made a mistake for all of five seconds before the Avatar giggles. “Ha, as if you could beat me and my wheels,” Asami says jokingly, stroking the side of one as a joke before she pushes off, blocking the door so that Korra can’t leave until she’s cleared it. Laughter that hasn’t been heard since the final battle with Zaheer rings clearly through the hallways as the Avatar speeds away.

Korra laughs too, glad to see Asami’s smile for the first time in months, and then she follows, running as fast as she can without knocking into the walls.

 

Even with the use of all of her limbs, Korra somehow manages to lose the race, but she doesn’t have any problem with that; she’d lose a million races if it meant getting to see Asami smile the way she does at the dinner.

 

 

 

Sometimes she wonders what Asami might have done, had it been her in that wheelchair instead.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

It takes months of agonizingly slow progress, but eventually Asami manages to gain some of the function in her legs back. She works hard, harder than she ever has—which is truly saying something all things considered—and one morning she wakes and finds that she’s finally, finally walking again. Bending comes next, naturally, and she’s sure that if it weren’t for Korra and her parents in her corner she’d have given up a long time ago. It’s just so _difficult_.

She’d never realized just how much she took her physical abilities for granted until now.

“Come on, ‘Sami, one more time!” Korra cheers from the sidelines with Master Katara. At Korra’s feet Naga lets out a bark or two of encouragement as well, and she smiles even though she should be focusing on the member of the White Lotus whom she’s managed to convince to spar with her.

“Are you ready?” she asks, because she knows the poor guy hadn’t really wanted to spar today.

“Yes, Avatar Asami,” he says, bowing, and she bows as well before punching forward with her fist. A plume of flame extends, falling just short of where he stands about six feet away, but she tries again, putting just a little more force into her punch, and is rewarded with the sound of his gasp.

Clearly he hadn’t expected her to be this strong just yet.

Well, she thinks, jumping back to dodge a jet of flame, she’ll show him. She’s not the Avatar for nothing, after all. And it isn’t as if she’s doing this only for herself. She does have a girlfriend to impress, too.

Smiling at the thought, Asami lets loose a quick one-two combo that serves mostly as a distraction before twisting into a roundhouse, and it’s at that precise moment when she feels herself collapse.

“Asami!”

“Avatar Asami!”

She hears Korra calling her name over and over and fades out into blackness.

 

 

When she wakes up—apparently a few hours later—Korra is sitting at her bedside, holding her hand even though her eyes are closed, and Asami pushes herself up on to her elbows. Korra doesn’t so much as stir.

“I guess this is what I get for trying to impress you so soon after I started bending again, huh?” The only response she gets is Korra’s shallow breathing, and she laughs to herself before dropping a kiss on the Southerner’s dark hair. “You know, I resented the state I was in after…after Zaheer,” she says, voice dropping out as she struggles to quell the fear that arises within her at the mere thought of that man’s name.

She calms herself by looking at Korra’s sleeping face. Momentarily distracted, Asami reaches out as gently as she can to brush back a strand of hair that has fallen over Korra’s eyes. She really did resent being so forcefully put out of, well, everything, her whole life, but now that things are looking better…

“You know, in a way I’m glad that this happened to me,” she says, squeezing Korra’s hand ever so slightly. “I mean, it was awful, not being able to walk, and I still feel heavy, off-balance, but I grew up being rushed between lessons and fancy parties and training and all sorts of things, so I guess I’m kind of used to it. The feeling of not really having control over your own body.

“That’s not the point though. The point is that I’m thankful that this happened to me, and not you,” she says out loud, and it hasn’t occurred to her until now that this is how she feels. “Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if things had been different…like, what if _you’d_ been the Avatar, instead of me, Korra? What if _you’d_ been the one to end up like me, feeling worthless as a saviour of the world?”

Korra shifts slightly, seeking warmth, and Asami nestles as close as she can without upsetting the aching of her limbs or the peace of Korra’s slumber.

“You know,” she says as she watches the rise and fall of Korra’s chest, “I think, if it had been you, you’d have gotten through this just fine, in your own way. Maybe not right away, and maybe not without a few outbursts, but you'd get through it in your own time. The way I’m trying to now…

“I don’t know what I would have done if I’d had to watch you fighting Zaheer instead of me, though…so I’m so glad it was me and not you. I love you too much to ever hope you’d have to deal with something as big as all of this.”

Blue eyes meet hers and she knows that Korra's heard her. It's entirely possible she's heard everything, but Asami isn't bothered. She meant every word. “I love you too, Asami,” Korra says sleepily, and Asami catches the edges of a bleary-eyed smile. “And for the record, I’d take your place a hundred times over if it meant I’d never have to watch you get hurt.”

“I know you would, Korra,” Asami says as her girlfriend begins to doze off again. The honesty in her voice isn’t surprising at all, because she knows that Korra’s words are no simple boast. They are just the truth.

 

 

 

And perhaps in another universe, should such things exist, there is an Avatar Korra lying in a bed in the Southern water tribe palace, with an Asami holding her hand as she says, “I’m so glad it was me and not you”.

 

  
  


 


End file.
